Spanish River 2015

During our 5 day trip down the Spanish River Skip had several ‘songs’ composed in his honor. It gave Jim something to do while paddling and proved mildly entertaining to the rest of the group. There were variations of Canoeing in the Rain, and 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall (became 30km to Paddle Today) and this summary of the trip.

Every year about this time we plan a canoeing trip,
bringing all our canoeing buddies the group is led by Skip.
Heading north to Spanish River, there are sights to see,
paddling down those Spanish rapids, classes II and III.

The Spanish landscape is beautiful and a wondrous sight,
we saw ducks, ospreys, moose and the full moon at night.
But the lure of the river was running down those waves,
we ran all the rapids except those named as graves.

Now we’re paddling the Spanish River going fast splash, splash;if we dump at this one it will be our last.Paddling Spanish rapids, classes II and III;help me keep this canoe straight through these rapids if you please.

Paddling down Spanish River for all of five days
Skip consulted all the maps we thought he knew the way.
Lakes and swifts and rapids, the water ran downstream
We paddled 30 kilometers every day ‘cause Skip was mean.

Bouncing off the rocks and boulders paddle Steve and Ski,
Following right behind them paddle Tim and me.
Jack is ruddering, Skip is prying, trying to keep them straight.
At the bottom of the rapids we will quietly wait.

Now we’re paddling the Spanish River going fast splash, splash;if we dump at this one it will be our last.Paddling Spanish rapids, classes II and III;help me keep this canoe straight through these rapids if you please.

Now it’s looking dire for our boys and their sideways canoe,
They are floating towards the rocks and we don’t know what they’ll do.
Watching beers and chocolates floating down the waves.
Leaving Jack and Skip alone, it’s snacks and beers we’ll save.

Friday before departure Eric and I assembled the Yakima racks for my truck; a vex some process, but it enabled us to carry most of the gear, two canoes (Wenonah Cascade & Old Town Camper) and three passengers. Tim drove his Jeep with his gear, Steve’s Mad River canoe and three passengers.

We met at my house at 7am and were on the road by 7:30am – headed to Buffalo, Toronto and NW to Agnew Lake Lodge. Toronto was hosting the Pan American games and traffic was unbelievable. We lost 1 hour in heavy stop and go traffic and almost got rear ended. We stopped in Perry Sound (home of Bobby Hull) due to a traffic accident that killed 2 and left 4 others injured. We called Agnew Lake Lodge and informed them we would arrive the next morning instead. We rented a campsite and turned in at 9pm. We arose Sunday at 5:30am, packed up and drove to Agnew Lake Lodge.

At Agnew Lake Lodge we got our shuttle drivers, fishing licenses, camping and parking permits and headed to Duke Lake – a three hour drive. We were on the water at 1:30pm and headed out looking for an early campsite.

We camped on a sandy point after paddling on 9th Lake for a little over 2 hours. We were hopeful the exposure on the sand spit would provide a breeze and keep the bugs away. It did, occasionally. We had some mosquitoes, but mainly biting flies – stable flies / ankle biters. We all took a quick swim to clean up but didn’t stay in long due to the leeches. We agreed that each of us would be responsible for our own breakfast and lunch but we took turns making dinner. For the 1st night Steve made turkey meat burritos for dinner.

I slept OK – not great. I overfilled my NEOS air mattress and it was hard, my pillow was off, we had mosquitoes in the tent and I had to get up to pee. We got up at 6pm. Skip made coffee and eggs. We packed up our tents, damp with condensation and were paddling by 8am.

Our routine was to paddle for 60-90 minutes and then stop for a drink and snack. Skip’s plan was to get us to the head of Agnew Lake on Thursday night so the paddle across the lake could be done early Friday morning while the lake was calm. To achieve this he set paddling goals of 10km on Sunday and 30km every day thereafter. We paddled from 8am – 3pm – all lake paddling with a couple of little swifts in between. Leaving 1st Lake we followed a series of swifts and easy rapids. Tim and I put our canoe cover on as we left our lunch site anticipating rapids. Tim and I went 1st through the first rapids we encountered. Skip and Jack went next; followed by Steve and Ski. There was a large rock towards the bottom of the rapids. Skip and Jack tried to cross to the right side of the stream and broadsided the rock and dumped. They used the home made bailer I issued to each canoe to empty the water from their boat – it would be used again. Tim and I saved the beer and chocolate which escaped their canoe. We took pictures at one of our break points that coincided with a campsite that Skip, Steve, Bob and I had used as our day 1 campsite on our trip 12 years prior. It was more overgrown by bushes. We fell just short of Skip’s goal for the day when we decided to stay on a point in Expansia Lake. Skip and Jack made dinner: steaks, potatoes and fried squash.

Our water filter got clogged despite our pre-filtering of the lake water. We back flushed multiple times and got minimal improvement. Tim declared out Expansia Lake campsite to be ‘Squatchy” and claimed to hear several Sasquatch noises.

Our 3rd day was a marathon day of paddling from 8:30am – 6:30 pm with a one hour break to portage around Upper Albion Rapids. We ran the Lower Albion Rapids, Railroad Rapids, Bridge Rapids and Cliff Rapids. We were going to stay at Cliff Rapids but the 1st site was too muddy and dark. We ran the rapids (past the nude sunbather) and found the lower two sites were taken. About 3pm we stopped at an old campsite and Jack, Tim and I went for a swim to cool off. I felt like I was overheating and needed to cool down. About 4km below Cliff Rapids we found an island campsite where we stayed for the night. It was buggy, but home for the night. Tim and I made carrot sticks and celery sticks stuffed with peanut butter or cheese spread as our snack and cooked hot dogs and beans for our dinner. Jack & I took a swim off a nearby sand bar after dinner but the hordes of large horse flies were a menace and kept us from being out long.

We were on the water at 7:30am and paddled Zig Zag and Little Graveyard rapids. We emptied the boats and carried around Graveyard Rapids. At Agnes Rapids, Skip & Jack carried, Tim & I lined and Steve and Ski ran. We played leap frog with a family group who stopped to swim at the Elbow. One of the swimmers lost their Croc while swimming. Tim and I managed to retrieve it from the fast moving water and toss it up on shore for them to retrieve. We saw two moose swimming across the river and they stood on the shore and watched us approach for a long time. We stopped to camp for the night on top of a very large rock with an outstanding view although it was a pain to haul our gear from the canoes up the slope.

Our water filter failed. It had gradually slowed down the past few days and we had to back flush every 16-32 oz. We finally got enough water by letting it drip all night long into the big collapsible water bucket and by using the water from the 1/2 gallon ice blocks which melted. I also had 2 dromedary bags filled with water from melted ice. It was nice drinking clean water that we didn’t have to add Crystal Light flavoring.

Wednesday night I made Spanish rice using Kathryn’s recipe and preparations. It came out great and everyone had 2nds and 3rds.

Thursday morning we were on the water at 8:15am, ran a couple of swifts and then ran the Cascade Rapids. Cascade Rapids were a series of ‘cascades’ with the last of the rapids being large standing waves. Tim got a chestful of water, but little made it’s way into the canoe. The canoe cover worked well. It was easy to access, the snaps stayed on and it shaded our lower legs and feet. It saved us on at least two occasions from getting serious water in the canoe. We paddled until 2pm and camped at the head of Agnew Lake. There was a lot of wind and white caps as we set up camp. We staked our tents down securely and enjoyed some camp time. Skip and Jack made dinner from freeze dried vegetables and rice. Bored by 6pm we turned in early at night. We were once again blessed with a full moon at night. We got up early, had coffee and granola bars and packed up for our paddle across Agnew Lake. The lake was dead calm to start, but we ended up paddling into waves on our return.

On our return ride home (13 hours !!) we had plenty of time for trip assessment discussions.

The Spanish River was a good choice for our skill levels. The Class II & III rapids were challenging but not threatening. Both Tim and Jack, as well as the rest of the group, gained more confidence in running rapids and maneuvering the canoes around obstacles as the trip progressed.

Traveling with 6 people / 3 canoes was ideal. The group fit the available campsites and we all traveled at a similar pace.

The truck and Jeep were ideal for transporting 3 canoes, gear for six people and six passengers.

The Mad River and Wenonah Cascade canoes were well suited for the trip. The canoe cover was a nice feature. The 16′ Old Town Camper canoe lacked a enough freeboard in the middle and that’s where Skip & Jack shipped most of their water. Bailers for each canoe were useful.

Despite planning a 6 day trip the group decided to try and return on Saturday. We spent 1/2 day on the water Sunday; Monday-Thursday as full days on the water and 1/2 day out on Friday. While a little more “down time” would have been appreciated on a couple of the long days paddling when given the extra time on the last day we got bored.

Despite planning to fish the group didn’t invest as much time in fishing as perhaps planned. Even with a license and bringing fishing equipment Jim never fished at all. Steve and Ski did the most fishing, but much of that was trolling while paddling.

The next trip should have a ‘transportation officer’ responsible for road maps and alternative routing to/from our destination. We relied too heavily on our GPS which routed us through Toronto and heavy traffic. The drive to/from Agnew Lake Lodge was excessive.

Our water filter issues were troublesome. We had another Basecamp filter and a small emergency Sawyer water filter if needed. We did multi-layered pre-filtering of our water, but probably should have let our water settle in the camp bucket for 10-15 minutes before pre-filtering.

Our meals worked out great and we had an abundance of food and snacks. The two burner propane stove worked out well. We agreed next time that the cooks shouldn’t also be responsible for washing dishes. We should have squeezed our food supplies to reduce from 4 to just 3 coolers.

In the fall I made a presentation describing this trip to the local ADK club. It can be seen here.